NuTTshell Blogz

Hey, back with you. I have been playing a lot of guitar lately. I'm not that good, but I sure enjoy it. Plus a friend is giving me lessons, so I may get better. But it sure keeps me entertained and a few others too.

Hey everybody, how's the summer going for y'all? Technically the summer is just getting ready to be ushered in on the 21st, but, hey the kids are out of school, Water World is going full out, so it must be summer. Have a good one!

They were setup and plugged into the sound system in just over 45 minutes. A sound check and then they were free to play whatever until 12:30 when people started piling in. The house lights went down, spot lights shined on the group. A Denver DJ came out and introduced BasRock. Mild applause. They started out stiff, but Luke got rowdy and the rest of the group loosened up. They were actually having fun when they started Ramparts and when they got to the final song, Momma Pat played the intro, Jean came in with keyboards, Luke with the brushes and Mick started singing,

“Dawn on the mountain”

“Quiet in the hills

Sunrise caught my attention

Silent beauty of eternal glow

Brought a warmth to heat my soul

'Tis a transitory moment”Then they built the sound adding guitars and bass, for the chorus. Mick, Jean and Luke all sang this: “Tryin' to figure out

What and why it's all about

Gettin' my head together

Gettin' my head together!”Then they did the 2nd verse, Momma Pat did a steel solo and the grand finale was the chorus again two more times. That was it, the crowd sat still for a few seconds, as if waiting for them to continue. “Thank you all, enjoy the rest of the show,” Nick said and then the crowd erupted in applause. The DJ came out quickly, as they all started taking their stuff apart. “BasRock! I have a feeling they're going to be big, now sit tight the Eagles will be up shortly.”

When they reached the section above the dried creek bed where he found her, she stopped, knowing that this was it. He was only a few steps behind her.

Lianne wasn’t happy about returning to her old life. Cliff Hawk gently took her by the shoulders and looked at her.

"You are a great woman. We appreciate what you have done!" They gazed at each other and then Lianne came close and kissed him.

"You are wonderful Cliff Hawk-Ahmihadra. I am going to miss you."

They reached the large rock, made their way around the mesquite and creosote bushes and stood at the place where she had lain just two days earlier.

She held onto him tightly, "I’m scared. Can’t you come with me?"

Lianne loosened her grip on Cliff Hawk and disappeared. The brave couldn’t believe it and started looking around the area as if he lost something. After a few minutes though he stopped, realizing that he needed to think about what to do. The brave didn’t know what to think about this whole experience, he would have to talk with his chief and the medicine man. Now though he needed to return to the village as his chief wanted.

Cliff Hawk started back, but felt a loneliness that he had never felt before--he was going to miss Lianne.

A hawk was circling above him and seemed to be following him down. As he got closer to his village the brave could hear singing and celebrating. The trail took him over one canal and he was amazed to see water flowing through it, a few days earlier when he crossed, it had been dry.Macky Mac

Our planning session went well, I just went along with their ideas and they finally came up with a water commercial. I added a little bit now and again, we came up with a storyboard and product name and such.

"Who should be the talent? Who plays the guy in the desert?" Tad asked.

We joked around a bit and then Chris said, "Let’s have McNiz do it, he’d be perfect."

I was called McNiz in our class.

Everyone else agreed, "Yeah McNiz!"

The premise was pretty simple, yet it worked! A guy lost in the desert happens across a bucket of bottled water. His favorite isn’t in the bucket which he desperately searched through, so he screams. Then close by he spots his favorite bottled water like a mirage, he scrambles over to it, quickly opens it and gulps some down. After this sip he is transported from the desert to a beautiful mountain valley next to the stream where his favorite water is found.

So our group checked out a camera, bought numerous bottles of water and drove to the Sand Dunes, where we filmed me falling down a sandy hill--about 10 takes in the HOT April sand, I had sand everywhere!

Then we did five or six takes of me rifling through the bucket and screaming at the end and spotting something in the distance, about the same amount of takes of me taking a big gulp of the saving water. Then we left the sand dunes and found a road going up toward Blanca Peak, one of the 14’ers. We filmed me in the same pose as in the desert so we could edit those together and drove back.

I had a blast, it was fun being "the talent." When we got back they went over the footage and put together what we needed with some music and a voice-over, presto!

But we only got a "C" plus we got in trouble for taking the camera off campus!

The transition worked well, we synced up my shot from the desert perfectly with the shot in the mountains.

Ourplace…is on 2 ½ acres, with a small stream at the bottom of a hill east of the house. The house is 2400 square feet, on one floor, plus the solarium and 3 out buildings. It has gas forced air, plus radiant solar heat. We put sliding glass windows/doors (2) from the living room to the solarium, 2 more in the master bedroom out to the sun-room and one from the kitchen. These and all of the windows are triple paned, and have Hunter-Douglas coverings. The three buildings (besides the main house) are 2 pump/generator houses and a small garage with an apartment. We put in a small lake (Pond Lake) with a sandy beach--swimming allowed. Pond Lake is at the bottom of a 45 foot high bluff, a path winds its’ way from the house to the pond. The home itself has 3 ½ baths, 3 bedrooms, open living/dining area, adjoining kitchen, 2 utility rooms, a laundry room, an office with electronic media/communication hub (an intercom system and capability of piping music to any or all rooms), a music room, a large storage/shop area, 2 ½ car garage, covered patio (on the north side), and the solarium stretching the length of the house on the south side. We can close the solarium off in inclement weather, but it is normally open to the picnic/barbecue area. This property also has 3 generators that enable it to go “off the grid” if we desire. We combine the gas generators with solar, wind and hydropower. It has a 10-person hot tub, the latest top quality appliances. There is an outdoor kitchen/bar area at the east-end of the solarium (equipped with a utility window to the main kitchen), two sided fireplace (gas or wood); it also has a labyrinth and an outdoor chapel area; and a garage with a small efficiency apartment above it. This property is about ½ mile from town (could be in AZ—Prescott or Sedona, or in NM near Farmington) somewhere that doesn’t get much snow and a lot of sun. No fungus!Macky Mac